The Pleasant Valley School Board approved a 3.5% salary increase for both Superintendent Dr. James Konrad and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Rae Lin Howard.

Konrad joined the school district in November 2021 with a starting salary of $170,000 per year. His contract is for five years and will end in November 2026.

Howard’s contract is also for five years from Sept. 23, 2021, to Sept. 23, 2026. She was hired in Nov. 2020 with a starting salary of $125,000.

According to her contract, her salary increases cannot be less than 2% per year, as long as she had a satisfactory performance review. Her salary for the 2021-2022 school year was $145,000.

During public comment, Dominic Roberti of Eldred Township, who is a high school student, said he isn’t 100% against their pay increases, but the teachers didn’t get increases that high.

“The high school is in chaos. The German program is just, I don’t know if it’s going to exist at all because there is like one or two teachers for the German program,” he said.

Roberti went on to talk about problems in the Spanish program and that there is still no long-term substitute teacher to replace one of his teachers who left on maternity leave.

He said that even before that, the school district has experienced a possible strike; furloughs of teachers, paraprofessionals and other staff; recall of staff; and movement of teachers.

“If this doesn’t sound chaotic, then I don’t know what does to you,” he said.

After the public comment period was over, Konrad responded that he knows there are difficult situations at the high school, but it will get better. He has spoken to other school districts, and they are also having challenges with hiring staff.

“We want to acquire individuals to come in and be a consistent educational resource for our students day in and day out,” he said. “Just so you all remember, we are also the highest paying sub rate in the entire county, and that’s done strategically so that we can draw more to PV, but there’s again challenges with that.”

Despite the challenges, Konrad said he has seen staff collaborating together to meet the needs.